{"id":27675,"date":"2021-01-25T09:16:17","date_gmt":"2021-01-25T14:16:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/?p=27675"},"modified":"2021-01-25T09:16:20","modified_gmt":"2021-01-25T14:16:20","slug":"brandon-lanphear-to-take-over-drivers-seat-at-richard-green-racing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/2021\/01\/brandon-lanphear-to-take-over-drivers-seat-at-richard-green-racing\/","title":{"rendered":"Brandon Lanphear to Take Over Driver’s Seat at Richard Green Racing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Brandon Lanphear to Take Over Driver’s Seat at Richard Green Racing<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Barre, VT <\/em>\u2013 One of the most iconic cars of the past two decades at Barre\u2019s Thunder Road has a new pilot. Richard Green Racing has announced that Morrisville\u2019s Brandon Lanphear will drive the #16VT Chevolet with sponsorship from Richard Green Trucking, Green\u2019s Ace Hardware, and Pro Driver Training during the upcoming Maplewood\/Irving Oil Late Model season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since early 2014, Milton\u2019s Scott Dragon had been behind the wheel of the familiar blue machine. In that time, he won the 2016 and 2018 \u201cKing of the Road\u201d titles along with 12 feature events. However, Dragon recently decided to step away from the #16VT and pursue interests outside of racing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, the 26-year-old Lanphear is taking the reins. Brandon, the son of former track champion Dwayne Lanphear, is coming off a year where he won the Myers Container Service Triple Crown Series title and finished fourth in Lenny\u2019s Shoe & Apparel Flying Tiger points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had a team meeting a couple weeks ago and looked over the rosters,\u201d team owner Richard Green said. \u201cWe felt that Brandon was probably the best choice among up-and-coming, soon-to-be Late Model drivers who were available. We had a meeting with him a week ago and told him what we were all about, and he\u2019s excited about the chance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had a great run with Scott,\u201d Green added. \u201cWe spent seven years in the hunt for championships. We want to thank him for all his hard work and dedication to our team. We\u2019re still on good terms, and if we ever want to do something later on, we\u2019ll get back together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m already excited for the season,\u201d Lanphear said. \u201cIt makes a world of difference for me having their knowledge and experience. They\u2019ve been racing for almost 20 years now. They\u2019re definitely a proven team \u2014 their stats speak for themselves. It\u2019s really exciting just to have the opportunity to drive a Late Model, and to have it be a good one at that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 2002, Richard Green Racing has been a constant presence at Thunder Road and on the traveling American-Canadian Tour (ACT). The team debuted with Dave Wilcox as its driver before Joey Becker took over the seat midway through the 2003 season. Becker spent more than 10 years as the team\u2019s weekly Thunder Road racer. Dragon joined the team early in the 2014 season with Becker remaining as a crew member.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark Lamberton and Travis Stearns have also piloted Richard Green Racing cars in ACT Late Model Tour competition. Together, RGR drivers have combined for 17 wins at Thunder Road, including victories in the Vermont Governor\u2019s Cup, Labor Day Classic, and Memorial Day Classic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lanphear has spent the last three seasons in the Lenny\u2019s Shoe & Apparel Flying Tiger division. He won three features and finished in the top-4 in points every season. Lanphear also won the Rookie of the Year in both the Flying Tigers and rk Miles Street Stocks. He has two Late Model starts under his belt, including a 16th<\/sup>-place effort in the most recent Vermont Milk Bowl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2021, the new pairing is set for a full card of weekly racing and special events at Thunder Road. Green also has the Midsummer 250 at White Mountain Motorsports Park and Night Before the 250 event at Oxford Plains Speedway penciled on the team\u2019s calendar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel we have the best chance of helping somebody talented like Brandon do well just because of our team make-up,\u201d Green said. \u201cWe have a championship-winning team, obviously. And we also have one of the best driver coaches out there in Joe Becker. With those two things, I think Brandon\u2019s going to be in a good position. I\u2019ll keep him together on the radio, and Joe will keep coaching him, and obviously Joe, Brendan, and Todd will work to put a winning race car under him every week.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be fun,\u201d Green continued. \u201cThe boys are excited. I know Joe is extremely excited to have another opportunity here to help someone along. Brandon is someone who may or may not have gotten an opportunity in the Late Model ranks otherwise, but I think he\u2019s quite deserving to be there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey told me they don\u2019t have any set goals or expectations from me,\u201d Lanphear said. \u201cThey\u2019re more or less looking to go out and have fun. That\u2019s a lot of the reason why people do race \u2014 because it is fun. I like to enjoy it and have fun, but I also like to perform well, and I know they do, too. They don\u2019t go to the track to just ride around \u2014 they go to try and win. Personally, I think there\u2019s potential to maybe contend for a win. We\u2019ll also be running for Rookie of the Year, so that\u2019s my real goal for myself. But other than that, I think we all just want to go enjoy racing and have fun. If you\u2019re not having fun, then why are you even doing it at that point?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thunder Road opens the 2021 racing season on Sunday, May 2 with the 23rd<\/sup> Community Bank N.A. 150. The ACT Late Model Tour and Maplewood\/Irving Oil Late Models go 150 laps with the Lenny\u2019s Shoe & Apparel Flying Tigers, rk Miles Street Stocks, and Burnett Scrap Metals Road Warriors also on the card. The annual Thunder Road Car Show and an open practice are scheduled for Saturday, May 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brandon Lanphear to Take Over Driver’s Seat at Richard Green Racing Barre, VT \u2013 One of the most iconic cars of the past two decades at Barre\u2019s Thunder Road has a new pilot. Richard Green Racing has announced that Morrisville\u2019s Brandon Lanphear will drive the #16VT Chevolet with sponsorship from Richard Green Trucking, Green\u2019s Ace Hardware, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thunder-road","category-vermont"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27675"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27676,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27675\/revisions\/27676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}